RailEnquiry

Divisional Railway Manager (Salem division) Sujatha Jayaraj said that the railways was examining the possibilities of extending the stoppage time of a few trains at Tirupur railway station on a ‘need basis’ considering the huge volumes of inbound and outbound passengers and cargoes handled in the station.She noted that there were representations from different quarters of users for increasing the stopover time as they felt that the present halting time of a shade over two minutes was inadequate for a buzzing station such as Tirupur.“However, we cannot increase the stopover time of every train that halts at Tirupur since any such move will upset the entire schedule of the trains running in the sector,” she pointed out and added that the final decision on any proposal for increasing the halting time from the Division need the ratification from Railway Board before they could be implemented.Ms. Jayaraj was speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of an inspection conducted at Tirupur railway station on Thursday to assess the infrastructure needs of the station.

Cargoes:On the complaints of cargoes lying haphazardly in the second platform in the station, Ms. Jayaraj said that separate places had been identified at the tail end of the platform to shift the main parcel stocking yard situated almost in the centre of the platform and thereby, reduce inconveniences caused to the passengers due to any spillage of cargoes from the yard into the platform.Answering a query, she said that there was no need for another permanent ticket counter to issue daily tickets as the present two counters were issuing tickets well within the maximum ceiling stipulated for a counter for every eight-hour shift.“Even then, we have been opening more counters on temporary basis during the hours in which the rush is huge,” she added.She hinted that one more foot overbridge was planned in Tirupur station and also of the plans to expand the width of the platform No: 1 at its eastern side.